Now I'm Richie

I would guess there have been at least 700 trainers introduced in the nearly 800 episodes of Pokemon. Many episodes didn’t introduce any and then some episodes introduce like a dozen, so I think 700 is a fair estimate. My favorite one is this guy Richie. Now Richie only showed up in 4 episodes and I only saw 3 of them. Unlike the stars of the show who travel together and help each other in times of trouble, Richie travels alone and survives by his own cunning. You’d think he’d be pretty tough, but he is mellow, easy going and fun. Most importantly, Richie plays by his own rules. He doesn’t have anyone telling him where to go or what to think so he is free to choose, learn and adapt. Richie is the one who taught Ash to think outside the box. He was the first on the show to use his Pokemon outside of battle to help when disaster struck. He was the first one to give names to his pokemon. Also, he put star stickers all over his pokeballs so when all the pokeballs were stolen, then retrieved, he could just pull his from the sack while the other trainers spent hours figuring out which pokemon were theirs. In a show like Pokemon (a perfect metaphor for life) things stay very similar, introducing a new concept or two every few episodes. Richie was just a dynamo, appearing out of nowhere and changing all the rules. He was like the undomesticated Ash. The feral Ash. I am domesticated. I’ve always been in the middle of a group, or part of a pair. I always say I want to be Thoreau, but I never make the effort to separate myself from society. Now for the first time I can really be alone and explore what that means. Now for the first time in my life I have the chance to be Richie.